From Steven Spielberg's The Fabelmans to Charlotte Wells' Aftersun, autofiction films have been popular of late with both veteran and newer directors. The long-awaited follow-up to his award-winning AIDS epidemic drama 120 BPM, Red Island sees French filmmaker Robin Campillo mine ostensibly similar semi-autobiographical details, here delicately exploring specific social and political issues. Without spoiling anything, however, Red Island's structure and concluding POV prove decidedly more slippery than those other recent coming-of-age gems.
Campillo’s film is set in Madagascar in 1971, during a curious transitional period for the country. Located off the southeastern coast of Africa, the island nation formally became a republic independent of France in 1960, but various ties to their former colonisers remained in place, including the continued presence of French soldiers.
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